Weather Report #47: The Rise and Fall of Gawker, the CIA in LatAm, the Border Security Expo, and More...

Hello, dear reader! Welcome to your Weather Report, a (sometimes) weekly column where I recommend some articles, (sometimes) a book, a movie, and some music for readers to consume.

Here's what you're getting this week:

1. Read my story on Coast Guard drones in Puerto Rico
2. Good journalism about the rise and fall of Gawker, how everything is starting to sounds like AI, pink slime outlets in in Florida publishing propaganda, and the CIA in Latin America
3. A creepy body-horror film about the pre-Y2k anxieties surrounding the internet and video games
4. Two international songs that I've been bumping lately

If you're interested in seeing the recommendations – and supporting Heavy Weather's quest to keep tabs on collapse – you can become a paid subscriber by clicking the button below. Paid subscribers get access to the MEDIA LIST, a comprehensive list of every book, movie, and video game I've ever recommended. If you're already a paid subscriber, thank you very much! This newsletter would literally not be possible without your support.

What I Did This Week:

I completely forgot to share this last week, but I wrote a scoop for The Latino Newsletter about how the Coast Guard has contracted $16 million worth of surveillance drones "for Puerto Rico," per a procurement records I found. The drone is part of a contractor-owned, contractor-operated (abbreviated as COCO, which is hilarious) contract for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaisse services with Shield AI.

Ultimately, it's a small story, but it's something that would not have never been covered by the local press. It's extra important to know how the state is expanding its surveillance capabilities now, especially as the US continues to turn the Caribbean into a killing zone. While the Coast Guard has tended to only be deployed after a Trump admin boat strike, there's a lot that's still unknown about how the drones will be used in the Caribbean.

I'll let you know if I find anything else.

Coast Guard Spends Millions Contracting Surveillance Drones ‘for Puerto Rico’

The United States Coast Guard has spent millions on surveillance and reconnaissance services using unmanned aerial drones “for Puerto Rico,” according to procurement records reviewed by The Latino Newsletter.

The Latino NewsletterCarlos Berríos Polanco

That's it for this week's free stuff. If you want to see the media recommendations and the link roundup, you can become a paid subscriber today.